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The Origin of Teaching As a Profession in Japan: a Transnational Analysis of the Relationship Between Professionalism and Nationalism in the 19Th Century

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The Origin of Teaching As a Profession in Japan: a Transnational Analysis of the Relationship Between Professionalism and Nationalism in the 19Th Century Cómo referenciar este artículo / How to reference this article Sakuma, A. (2018). The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and nationalism in the 19th century. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 5(2), pp. 35-54. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/ete.232 The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and nationalism in the 19th century Aki Sakuma e-mail: [email protected] Keio University, Tokyo. Japan Abstract: How was the concept of «teaching as a profession»1 advocated in the 19th century? In this study, this question is analysed by focusing on how the Japanese version of the concept was imported from the West and subsequently transformed in this non-Christian setting. It was formulated not only by a national action to create a strong centralized nation-state in Asia, but also through the transnational interaction of European, American, and Japanese educational leaders. First, the author argues that, the early Japanese concept of «teaching as a profession» is explored by examining the ideas of Mori Arinori, the first Minister of Education. Mori claimed that, in order to safeguard children’s morality, teaching should be a holy-calling profession in Japan. For him, this meant educating the subsequent generations to be obedient to their holy nation. Second, Mori’s images of education are shown to be consistent with those in the United States, where he had studied as a diplomat. These images were shared not only by US leaders such as Horace Mann, but also with Prussian and French leaders of the era. In both countries, both the holy-calling theory and the profession theory included nationalism, whose ultimate aim was education for the nation. However, while the sacredness of the republican polity was based on the ideals of individualism and liberty in the United States, the sacredness of the imperial polity in Japan was promoted by the Emperor the apotheosis of the imperial line, unbroken for ages eternal. These historical origins of the concept of teaching suggest why the professionalisation of teaching in Japan has been advanced by forces that hoist the flag of national particularism, and by a government that supports this view. This implies that teaching professionalism does not always connote democracy or the human rights of children/teachers. Keywords: teaching in Japan; teaching profession; professionalisation of teaching; Mori Arinori; 19th century: teaching in America. 1 In this article, «teaching» is defined as an occupation of a teacher.« Teacher» is defined as a person who undertakes duties in an educational programme in a school at the elementary/secondary level, with a certification or formal credentials. «Profession» is operationally defined here as a vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through long-term preparation. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 35 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 Aki Sakuma Received: 16/12/2017 Accepted: 29/03/2018 1. Introduction This essay clarifies how the concept of «teaching as a profession» emerged in 19th century Japan. The concept of teaching in America, which had been established in the first half of the 19th century under Prussian influence, was introduced into Japan by Mori Arinori, the first Minister of Education, in the latter half of the 19th century; however, it was transfigured for the Japanese context. In the 20th century, this Prussian-influenced concept in turn exerted an effect on other East Asian countries such as South Korea. The originality of this article lies in its adoption of a transnational perspective in the course of analysis. Starting from 2000, research from a transnational viewpoint, which attempts to relativize the framework of historical accounts by country, has advanced in the field of research into the history of teaching, and new findings have since been achieved (Hargreaves, 2000; Clavin, 2005; Popkewitz, 2013). However, the history of the concept of teaching has heretofore been investigated on a country- by-country basis, and as yet, there are few comparative studies that include Asia in the framework. The aim of this study is, therefore, to contribute an understanding from a transnational perspective of how the concept of teaching as a profession, which is a self-evident concept in the 21st century, was formed in the 19th century. It also aims to gain an understanding of the historical reasons as to why the social status of teaching in Japan and South Korea today is higher than that in the United States. This study will also allow the conflicting interpretations surrounding Mori Arinori’s concept of education to be overcome by means of transnational analysis. As argued in previous Japanese research, «There are few individuals about whom assessments are more divided than Mori» (Terasaki, 1973, p. 17), and it has not yet been explained satisfactorily from the available Japanese historical materials why Mori advocated women’s aptitude for teaching. In this article, the features of Mori’s concept of teaching are first analyzed. I then describe the US concept of teaching in the 19th century and clarify that Mori, who studied in America, converted the concept of teaching as a profession into that of teachers as holy nation builders who should subjectively obey their Emperor. Finally, I show that the concept of teaching as a profession does not always connote democracy, which helps to understand why current teacher education reforms in Japan have been promoted by the government, requiring teachers to be obedient to their nation, rather than to their children. 2. Mori Arinori’s Concept of Teaching Modern teacher training began in Japan in 1872, and its basic system was then established by Shihan-gakko Rei (the Teacher Preparation School Order) in 1886. This law was issued by Mori Arinori, who had assumed office as the first Minister of Education in the first Cabinet of Ito Hirobumi in 1885. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 36 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and... Mori Arinori was born into a samurai family of middling status of the Satsuma clan in Kyushu in 1847. At that time, it was forbidden to travel abroad due to the restrictions of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, in 1865, the Satsuma clan, which was the central force aiming to overthrow the shogunate, concluded an accord with England and secretly sent a group of 15 samurai, including Mori, to England as Japanese students studying abroad. Although Mori had been instructed to study marine surveying, the plan was changed so that he could study «the modern concepts of the foundation of states» under Professor Alexander Williamson at the University of London. He studied widely in the areas of physics, mathematics, history, philosophy, and so on. In addition, he conducted an inspection tour of the cultures of various places by traveling in Europe and Russia. In 1867, under the guidance of the British diplomat Laurence Oliphant, Mori was influenced by Thomas Lake Harris, an American preacher who criticized the prevailing Western society and government. In 1867, Mori moved to Harris’s colony in New York State with his Satsuma friends and Harris, and devoted himself to Harris’s spiritualism, establishing a flour mill, a vineyard, and so on as a communal enterprise. Upon being notified of the Meiji Restoration, Mori returned to Japan in 1868. However, he returned to America once more when, in 1870, he was posted in Washington as the first diplomat of the new Japanese government. During Mori’s second sojourn in the United States, he built a wide network of personal relationships with many intellectuals and obtained a wealth of information about the current situations in politics, economics, and culture. After returning to Japan in 1873, he again spent time in both China and England as an envoy, after which he devoted his efforts to the modernization of Japan’s education system as the first Minister of Education from 1885. But how did Mori view the teaching profession and what kind of teachers did he seek to train when he created the first teacher preparation system in Japan? The characteristics of Mori’s concept of teaching can be analyzed from the five perspectives of mission, social status, quality, preparation, and gender distribution. 2.1. Teachers as nation builders The first characteristic of Mori’s concept of teaching was the positioning of teachers as the bearers of education, in the context of education as a national project. This is described as follows in «Essentials of the government educational administration» (Mori, 1885, p. 167), a work that Mori revised repeatedly before offering it as a concrete plan for education. Article 1 Principle: The education system takes national education as its core, and the administration thereof should be based on the principles of the national economy. Article 3 Education: Elementary education should train children to do their duty as national subjects, to perform moral acts, and to promote their own welfare. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 37 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 Aki Sakuma For this training, the first priority is to prepare qualified teachers and to fill positions in each elementary school without any absence. This enterprise should be borne by each prefecture under the control of the government. Mori held that «the thing that serves as the main focus of education is, in other words, the strengthening of a country’s independence», and for Mori, it was education that solidified the nation’s standing as an independent country.
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